A medical team has been dispatched from the Ministry of Public Health to the Region 9 community in wake of reports that there has been an outbreak of gastroenteritis in several communities in the region.

Public Health Minister Volda Lawrence has confirmed that the team has been sent to the communities, which include Aishalton, Shea Village and Areunaw, where there were a number of persons who had shown signs of Gastroenteritis.

The Public Health Minister revealed yesterday that they were 58 cases of the infection in the three villages of  patients who are predominately school children.

Samples from the residents were taken and sent to Lethem for testing. The Ministry is awaiting the results to decide on the way forward.

The medical team has already started to conduct house to house visits and there were no reports of any fatality.

According to Minister Lawrence, the infectious disease staff was sent in to look at all the elements to ascertain which element was the cause. She said the team looked at the animals, drinking water and mining and found that most residents were not sterilizing their drinking water.

According to Lawrence, the villages had medication on hand to deal with the outbreak.

Currently the Ministry is collaborating with the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Ministries of Natural Resources, Agriculture, Communities and Indigenous People’s Affairs to address the issue.

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